man, with one hand, holds the violon in the middle; and with the other, by means of a piece of wood which has a pad at the end of it, briskly stretches the catgut, which, flying back, beats the cotton, takes it up with force, fwells it, feparates the dust, and renders it proper to be fpun. The elasticity of the bow which holds the violon makes it very eafy for the workman to move it from one end to the other over the heap of cotton which he is beating."* The next stage is the fpinning of the material, and, in this procefs, the fame fimplicity of operation and inftruments is again confpicuous; for, according to the fame author, the apparatus of the weaver" confifts only of two rollers, placed on four pieces of wood, fixed in the earth, under the fhade of fome large tree; of two fticks, which traverse the warp, and are fupported at each of the extre mities, the one by two ftrings, faftened to the tree under which the loom is placed, and the other by two other ftrings, tied to the workman's feet, which gives him a facility of removing the threads of the warp, to throw * Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 134. Calcutta edit. VOL. VII. A a the the woof."* Mr. Crauford tells us, that the fine muflins are woven within doors, the threads being too delicate to be exposed to the agitation of the air; but that it is by no means uncommon to fee whole groves full of looms, employed in weaving the coarser cloths.+ Finally, to complete the interesting authenticated account of this branch of manufacture, in a still more recent publication, just come to my hand, the process of preparing it is thus detailed. "After the cotton has been carded, it is fpun out into fuch delicate threads, that a piece of cotton cloth twenty yards in length may almost be concealed in the hollow of both hands. Most of thefe pieces of cloth are twice washed; others remain as they come from the loom, and are dipped in cocoa-nut oil, in order that they may be longer preferved. It is customary alfo to draw them through cangi, or ricewater, that they may acquire more smoothnefs and body. The cangi is fometimes applied to cotton articles in fo ingenious * Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 128. Calcutta edit. Sketches, p. 328. a a manner that purchafers are often deceived, and imagine the cloth to be much stronger than it really is; for, as foon as it is washed, the cangi vanishes, and the cloth appears quite flight and thin. "There are reckoned to be no less than twenty-two different kinds of cotton articles manufactured in India, without including muflin or coloured ftuffs. The latter are not, as in Europe, printed by means of wooden blocks, but painted with a brush made of the fibres of the rind of the cocoa-nut, (that is, in Malabar,) which, when beat, approaches near to horse-hair, becomes very elastic, and can be formed into any fhape the painter chooses. The colours employed are indigo, the leaves of which plant yield that beautiful dark blue with which the Indian chintzes, coverlets, tappifendis, and other articles, are painted, and which never lofes the smalleft fhade of its beauty. Also terra merita, called Curcuma, or Indian faffron, a plant which dyes yellow; and, in the last place, gum laɛ, together with fome flowers, roots, and fruits, which are used to dye red. With these few pigments, which are applied fometimes fingly, and fometimes mixed, the Indians produce on their A a 2 their cotton cloths that admirable and beautiful painting which exceeds every thing of the kind exhibited in Europe. "The French, English, and Dutch, have endeavoured to imitate these articles; but, notwithstanding all their labour and art, they have never yet been able either to produce these colours from the vegetable kingdom, or to attain to the fame fineness in their cloth. No perfon in Turkey, Perfia, or Europe, has yet imitated the Betille,* made at Mafulipatan, and known under the name of Organdi. The manufacturing of this cloth, which was known in the time of Job, the painting of it, and the preparation of the colours, give employment in India to male and female, young and old. "It may with truth be afferted, that, in fpinning, weaving, and dying, the Indians excel all other nations in the world."† Thus, adds the judicious M. Sonnerat, we fee that, in India, the hand, and two or three fimple utenfils, perfect works in which we make ufe of a hundred. In this "A certain kind of white Eaft-Indian chintz." † March, 1800. A voyage to the East Indies by the Missionary Bartolomeo, p. 397-399. refpect, refpect, the Indian appears the most distant from the European. We admire the industry of the favage Zealander, who, with a piece of stone formed like a hatchet, makes his boats, and completes all his joiners work. We are surprised when told that those beautiful muflins, fo much fought after, are made on looms compofed of four pieces of wood fixed on the ground; but we do not reflect, that, when our ancestors inhabited forefts and lived on acorns, they worked with equal fimplicity.* With respect to the mode of dying these cottons thus fimply wove and the substances used in their dyes, I am able to add little more than what has been previously mentioned; and notwithstanding what has been urged by Father Bartolomeo, it is by no means clear that the Indians do not poffefs, traditionally handed down to them from their ancestors, fome fecrets relative to this fubject which they have not imparted to foreigners. By means of the commerce which they anciently carried on with the Phoenicians they might have learned thofe fecrets; for it Voyages, vol. ii. p. 126. Idem edit. has |